Find out what your name is in Hawaiian!
We feature over 4,000 phonetic Hawaiian name translations. This is a great
resource if if you are looking for a baby/pet name or to translate the names of your
Hawaii theme party guests.
When outsiders began visiting Hawaii adaptations were made to
“translate” non-Hawaiian names to “Hawaiian names” phonetically based
on the Hawaiian alphabet and word structure. The 5 vowels a,e,i,o and u as well as the 8
consonants h,k,l,m,n,p, w and ' (which is called a glottle stop) make up the entire
Hawaiian alphabet. In the Hawaiian language a consonant is
always followed by a vowel which also means all Hawaiian words end in a vowel. Please
note that the glottal stop is not used in phonetic name translations, just literal
Hawaiian words.
Names
and words are more easily pronounced when they are broken down into single syllable
chunks. Take the name of Hawaii ’s state fish, humuhumunukunukuapua’a, and
pronounce it hu-mu-hu-mu-nu-ku-nu-ku-a-pu-a-a. Phonetically pronounced
who-moo-who-moo-new-coo-new-coo-ah-poo-ah-ah. Sometimes the letter W is pronounced
the same as V as in the traditional pronunciation of Hawai'i which is
phonetically pronounced huh-vi-ee rather than huh-why-ee.
Stressed vowels
a - ah, as in car: aloha
e - a, as in may: nene
i - ee, as in bee: honi
o - oh, as in so: mahalo
u - oo, as in spoon: kapu |
Unstressed vowels
a - a, as in about: ali`i
e - eh, as in met: kane |
A
traditional Hawaiian name has a specific meaning behind it and is given to a child when
they are born by a family elder. The child is
typically named after something that came to a family elder in a dream, by distinguishing
characteristics the child displays when born, or characteristics the family would like the
child to display. For example the woman’s name Lani means Heavenly.
The Hawaiian translations we provide are
phonetic and have no intentional literal meanings.
The phonetic translations are done based on the sounds the name makes when said and the
Hawaiian alphabet and word structure. Because there are only 13 letters in the Hawaiian
language there are many names which sound similar and have the same phonetic translation.
Click on the first letter of the first name
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